The goal of this course is to teach students to analyse, through the lens of collective action theory, how intrastate armed conflicts happen, not as the inevitable outcome simply of emotions and motivations like fear, hate grievance, and not of conditions such as poverty or inequality, but rather as a product of human choice and coordinated collective action as exercised through framing and socio-political mobilisation within an opportunity structure.
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Please note! For this minor and its courses a restricted number of places are available.Enrollment takes place through a Selection Committee, which means you can only register for the course and the minor within the first four days of the course registration period (Monday –Thursday 16.00 hrs). The Selection Committee decides whether or not you can enroll. More information about registration can be found here.
The goal of this course module is to educate students on theories pertaining to how intrastate armed conflicts happen, not as the inevitable outcome simply of emotions and motivations like fear, hate, grievance, and also not just the result of conditions like poverty, inequality, or discrimination. Rather, the phenomenon of intrastate armed conflict is theoretically analysed as a product of human choice and coordinated collective efforts that frame an image of the antagonistic Other, that mobilise human, material, technological, and ideological resources, all within a context of political opportunity structures that hinder or facilitate violent collective action. In short, the central argument that this course module aims to explore critically is, to quote Paul Richards: “armed conflict does not break out just because conditions happen to be ‘right,’ but because it is organised.” We unpack this statement into four main questions that serve to structure the course literature and weekly lecture sessions: (1) How and by whom is non-state violent collective action framed, organised, and mobilised? (2) How and why do individuals and groups engage in violent non-state collective action? (3) How is violent collective action expanded and sustained by non-state armed actors? (4) How do states respond to the violent collective action of non-state armed actors?
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